KOGELO, Kenya -- The drought season, which usually starts toward the end of November in much of this part of western Kenya, seems to have come early this year.

On most days, clear-blue skies hang over Kogelo, the valley below it and the hillside of rock formations that stretches for miles and miles opposite this hamlet, now world famous for its ties to Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Mr. Obama's father, a Harvard-educated economist who died after a car accident in 1982, is buried on the grounds of his ancestral home.

On such days, the temperature can rise to more than 100 degrees, but an ever-present breeze and shady trees make the heat somewhat bearable.

And so, for many of the subsistence farmers in Kogelo and the cluster of villages that surround it -- Pap Nyadiel, Apuoyo, and Ndori, it is time to start clearing up what is left in their shambas (farms) to prepare the fields for next year's planting of maize, millet, beans and sorghum.

The drought will last through December and the early months of next year before planting season starts in April. For the most part, that is the life cycle in Kogelo, where almost 90 percent of the villagers live off the produce from their shambas.

That's the prism through which Paul Oduor, a 25-year-old carpenter in Nyangoma Market, on the road to the Obama family compound, sees his life and how much of the world's attention now focused on Kogelo may soon change it.

A self-taught carpenter, Mr. Oduor, builds all kinds of furniture at his shop -- the Good Hope Workshop -- at the intersection of Ng'iya Ndori Road and what many local people call Sen. Barack Obama Road -- the junction that leads to the Obama family home.

Yesterday, Mr. Oduor stood in front of the wooden stall he opened some 10 years ago, watching more than 20 all-terrain sport utility vehicles carrying Western news reporters shuffling by the intersection and blowing clouds of dust at his store as they headed to the Obama compound.

"I support Obama a lot, but I hope all of this brings something more here," said Mr. Oduor, speaking in Luo, as he and an apprentice carved pieces of wood for a dining table they are building.

Born and raised in Nyangoma, the small trading center, made up of three brick storefronts, not more than half a mile from the Obama home, Mr. Oduor has found that life has changed significantly in this region since the world learned that relatives of Mr. Obama live in Kogelo.

For one thing, there is now a lot more traffic on the small road that leads to the Obama compound, and more traffic means more dust in his store and on the women who sell bananas and sugarcane in front of his store.

On days like yesterday, when much of the Western media -- CNN, BBC, The Associated Press, Sky News Italia, Canadian Broadcasting Corp., Time Magazine, Reuters, the Times of London, among others -- descended on Kogelo, the people in Nyangoma Market and others in Kogelo, suffer because of it, he said.

But being close to Kogelo also has its advantages.

So far, the villagers believe the media attention focused on the Obama family is what compelled the Kenyan government to start widening what was the once-narrow village road to Kogelo. They expect it will soon be a tarmac road.

Security has also improved since the Kenyan government set up a security squadron to guard the home of Sarah Onyango Obama, the 87-year-old step-grandmother of Mr. Obama, after burglars broke into her house early this year.

The unit, which is based at the front gate of the Obama compound, also patrols other parts of the village and now essentially is the equivalent of a police station in Kogelo, where there was none before.

Next, Mr. Oduor and his neighbors, like the proprietors of the Nyangoma Roadside Bar, and Kajuma Mini Shop, say, they need electricity.

"If Obama becomes president, I hope he will bring electricity with him to Kogelo when he comes back," said Mr. Oduor, adding that he could significantly change how he does business if electric lines were extended to the village.

His neighbor across the street, Remjius Ochieng Juma, a butcher, agreed.

"I could sell more beef if I had a freezer, but now I have to wait here with this piece of meat and hope it will be sold off within three days," Mr. Juma, 43 said, pointing to 100-pound piece of meat hanging from a hook in his butcher shop.

Also born and raised a few doors down from his Nyangoma market stall, Mr. Juma recalled the last time Mr. Obama was in Kogelo.

"This whole place was a sea of people. We wanted to show him that we were proud of him," Mr. Juma said, adding that people in the three villages near Kogelo are generally struggling to make ends meet.

"We don't have capital, we don't have too many resources. What we need is help. I hope that if Mr. Obama becomes president, he will remember us. I hope he remembers that in Luo culture, you always take care of home first," he added.